


He Just Needed To Use The Bathroom

by HickoryDaisy



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/F, M/M, Mary Sue Big Bang, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-15
Updated: 2015-11-15
Packaged: 2018-05-01 18:27:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5216138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HickoryDaisy/pseuds/HickoryDaisy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Nathan Brown mysteriously dies at Mikayla Snow's birthday party, the whole crew falls into shambles, but none more so than the birthday woman's elder sister Katie and Nathan's boyfriend Andrew. When a strange "Doctor" shows up, he makes things both worse and better. But the worst part of the whole thing? Nathan just needed to use the bathroom...</p>
            </blockquote>





	He Just Needed To Use The Bathroom

**Author's Note:**

> [Fanmix](https://www.dropbox.com/s/2lwdgelxjn4v7yv/hejustneeded.zip?dl=0) by RavingLiberal

  
  
“Hey, Mikayla, nice party!”

“Yep! Kayla, you and your sis are good at this!”

“Sure thing, Kay-Kay!”

"Mikey, your parties are always the best! You're always there!"

Katie Snow smiled as she heard all the guests compliment her sister, Mikayla, on her birthday party she and Katie had thrown together. Mikayla, who preferred having her name be shortened to Kayla or in some cases Mike or Mikey, thought that the party was a bit much, really just wanting to hang out with her friends. Katie, on the other hand, told her little sister that the party would make their friends smile, and that was the most important part. On that point, Mikayla had to concede.

The party was at the Snow household, where Katie and Kayla’s grandmother, Cindy, and their younger twin sisters, Luna and Diana, also lived. Luna and Diana had protested when they learned that they couldn't go to the party the gang was throwing. As a result, Cindy had decided to plan an extra birthday surprise for Mikayla with only Luna and Diana helping her. The twins had decided that that was an adequate replacement for the party, or rather Diana had, Luna didn't know what adequate meant. Most ten year olds didn't, at least not here in Valley Hills. The trio of plotting relatives had asked Katie to not let the party end until they gave the word. Katie didn’t mind keeping everyone busy. She loved parties, and everything about them. 

She loved watching the people there, laughing and having the time of their lives. She loved dancing with the guests, and playing party games like truth or dare, or possibly charades. Last year Jenny had dared Lanie to try and get tipsy off Coke. It didn't work, and just made Lanie very hyper. Annabell had reported that Lanie hadn't gone to bed until 2 AM after that.

Currently, it was time for dancing. Or possibly eating. There were a lot of snacks for anyone who might possibly be even the slightest bit hungry. Wendy was leaning against one of the kitchen counters and throwing grapes into the air, doing little pirouettes, and then catching them in her mouth. Nathan and Andrew, boyfriends and giant saps, had abandoned eating the cake in favor of throwing at each other's faces and laughing all the while.

Over in the living room, which had been turned into an impromptu dance floor, Mikayla and Bella were rocking out on the coffee table because they had run out of floor space. Around them, Jenny and Evan were slow dancing, which was odd, because the song playing was not the kind of song one slow-danced to, at least not normally. Fact was, no-one had ever seen someone slow dance to that song before, ever!

And then all the dancing stopped. Or rather, Nathan missed Andrew and the cake flew through the open doorway into the living room and hit Mikayla in the chest. Everyone just kind of stared for about a full minute before anything happened.

"I am so sorry, Mike! I..." Nathan began, trailing off as he realized something: Mikayla was giggling!

Sure enough, she burst into full blown laughter and hopped down from the coffee table in order to stroll into the kitchen. No-one was sure what they were expecting, but it wasn't Kayla picking up a piece of cake and lobbing it at Nathan! (Although that really should have been what they expected.)

Less than a minute later, everyone was engaged in a full blown food fight! Wendy's grapes had gone from landing in her mouth to landing in other people's hair, Evan had armed himself with ice cream, and so forth. The most amusing choice of weaponry was probably Vicky pulling out the ten jars of applesauce they had (Luna loved the stuff), and dumping a whole half a jar upon her little sister Leah's head. She proceeded to repeat this on whoever she deemed deserving.

The fight lasted about an hour, only ending when Katie got a text from her grandmother saying to wrap things up. When Katie announced that that meant that they had to clean up (both themselves and the collateral damage done to the surroundings), everyone groaned. It was so much fun to ignore life and consequences!

The whole crew decided to take turns in the working bathroom to wash up. Technically, the other one worked, but it was full of cat litter and smelled like cat poo, so no-one wanted to go in there, unless they were taking care of the cat, in which case they had no choice. Nathan was going first.

Giving Andrew a quick kiss and an, "I'll be right back, Andy," Nathan left the kitchen, where the others began to collect empty bowls and applesauce jars.

Ten seconds later, a piercing scream filled the house, startling everyone and causing Annabell to drop an applesauce jar, which was thankfully plastic and not glass. No-one moved as shock and dread flooded them. That had been Nathan. Each was hoping it was a joke, but Nathan didn't really like practical jokes, which left them with one terrifying conclusion...

"NATHAN!" Screamed Andrew, dropping two metal bowls to the floor as he bolted from the room, still dripping applesauce and trailing it behind him. "NO!"

The others shook themselves out of their shock when they heard Andrew scream the second time and raced after him, only to be confronted with a horrible scene. Andrew had slumped to the ground, and in front of him was a skeleton. Nathan's skeleton. 

It was impossible yet it was the only explanation. There was no way Nathan had become just a skeleton that fast, but the trails of applesauce and honey mustard stopped here. It was crazy to even think Nathan was gone, but yet here was irrefutable evidence. 

That was how Cindy, Luna, and Diana found them half an hour later, most of them in shock but Andrew just sitting there, sobbing like his life was the one that had ended.  
  
You know, life might get kinda boring after a while if you were a time lord. For the Doctor, sometimes he wondered if someone was messing with him. Maybe the TARDIS was, since 90% of the time, there was an alien waiting, or it got there while he was there. It got really frustrating after awhile.

But then there were his companions. He loved having people on board, showing them the universe. It never got old. From Susan to Rose, each and every one of them had a special place in his hearts.

However, Martha had just left, and he wasn’t sure what to do, so he just let the TARDIS decide.

That may or may not have been a bad plan, depending on how you look at it.  
  
  
  
When the TARDIS landed at a place the Doctor believed to be called, “Valley Hills, USA,” he stepped out of the TARDIS wondering why he didn’t visit many places other than Britain… or other planets. As he made a mental note to visit non-British Earth places, he came face to face with a dark-skinned girl in a bright yellow dress and purple leggings. She had long dark hair and eyes that seemed so sad, but a newish kind of sad, like something had just happened.

“Hi!” she chirped, like she had been waiting for someone to come along so she could do just that, like she normally chirped at people and felt the need to prove to people she wasn't depressed, or something similar.

“Um, yes, Hello,” the Doctor replied to the yellow-and-purple clad young woman. She seemed overly energetic, like she had drunk two dozen cups of coffee or eaten far too much sugar in order to continue functioning, not a healthy option, but still one none the less. However, the smile on her face seemed slightly forced, giving away the fact that she was quite stressed, or possibly even grieving, but felt like she had to deal with all on her own.

“I’ve never seen you before!” she chirped again, leaning toward the Doctor in a rather creepy manner, as though she had never heard of personal space (She had, but tended to ignore it when under stress or when highly angry). “My name’s Katie!”

“I’m the Doctor,” the Doctor replied to this woman’s antics, wondering why the giant smile on her face seemed both larger and more forced now than two seconds ago. It was rather odd.

“A… Doctor? You’re too late,” she whirled around and crossed her arms, “One week too late.”

The Doctor was very confused by this, and naturally expressed his confusion the way he always did. “What?”

“We are broken. Nathan’s gone, long before any doctors could have possibly gotten there, all of him was gone, only bones remained. I wish I knew who or what did that to him, so I could give them a piece of my mind!” gone was the young woman with a chirp in her voice. This young woman wanted to fix what couldn’t be fixed. Not just the holes in the hearts of those around who had been hurt by this 'Nathan's' departure, but to actually bring him back. Even though she wanted to bring him back, even her voice made it clear that she knew it was completely impossible.

“What?” the Doctor asked, unsure if he had heard her right. Only bones remained? Could it have been? It seemed quite possible, but he hadn’t really seen the Vashta Nerada do something that obvious, ever.

Katie seemed to hesitate, unsure if she should tell a complete stranger, but decided to go ahead, as she had already told him quite a lot. “He… He just needed to use the bathroom… Just needed to wash up... We all did... After... After the food fight... ” she trailed off, her eyes beginning to tear up.  
  
  
  
The last week had been the worst week the group had ever been through. Nathan was important to all of them, but Andrew had loved Nathan, more than anything else in this horridly temporary and cruel world, and so took his loss ten times harder than the rest of them.

Andrew had isolated himself so much, that within only a day, it felt like the group had lost two people. He wouldn’t do anything but mope on his bed, and sometimes take part in the plethora or chores his parents assigned him and Wendy, and the others weren’t doing that much better.

Vicky had thrown herself into her work, refusing to leave her mechanical engineering workshop unless it was to eat, sleep, or use the bathroom. She was working on a portal idea she had, to possibly try to use portals as a means of transport. Her younger siblings, twins Evan and Leah, had always been polar opposites, Even being a bit shy and withdrawn, while Leah was charismatic and talkative, now they seemed interchangeable, only ever looking up from whatever book they had to eat food, and only really giving vague responses to anything anyone said to them, usually, "Uh-huh."

But the Snows… well, the Snows home was under siege by law enforcement trying to figure out what killed Nathan. So far, the only thing they had managed to do was push out the Snows. Cindy had decided that whenever they had the chance to do so, they were to pack up their things, the Snows were leaving the house behind. Kayla couldn’t stop feeling like it was her fault since it had happened at her party. Katie’s usually bright and happy demeanor was forced now, but she had to keep it up for everyone else. The others needed to smile at least once a day! They just had too! Nathan had always smiled... She had to help them give at least weak smiles. She felt obligated…

The twins, Luna and Diana, were probably the happiest of everyone, even though they weren’t very happy, simply because they hadn’t been as close to Nathan. However, no-one they knew had just died before, unless you counted their parents, but it’s hard to grieve when you’re only a month old, so that didn’t count. The Snow parents, Tina and Daniel, had died in a car crash when, after their monthly date night, a drunk driver slammed into the side of the car, pushing it off the road and down a hill. Tina had survived long enough to get her to the hospital and for her to talk to her daughters, but they couldn't save her. 

The twins were having trouble wrapping their heads around the idea that Nathan was gone. It was just… unbelievable. Everyone else was having about the same issue, honestly.

There wasn’t a single member of their group that wasn’t grieving for Nathan.  
  
  
  
Katie’s eyes lit up for a single second as she thought of something. “Hey! Are you here to learn about Nathan’s death?”

The Doctor looked at the young woman who had hope in the dark. "Hmm? Oh, yes, of course, yes."

Katie gave a high pitched squee and said, "Yes! We don't have any forensic doctors here in Valley Hills!"

The Doctor looked at Katie slightly oddly, "Why not?"

"We are far too small... And when there are no examples, no-one wants to be one," Katie shrugged.

The Doctor nodded, "Oh, yes, that makes sense." Honestly, he thought it didn't, but whatever, he supposed.

"Come on!" Katie grabbed the Doctor's arm and began to drag him off. "The house is this way!"  
  
  
  
Katie remembered the first time she had met Nathan. Her little sister, her Kayla, and no-one else's, had brought home friends after school one day. Nathan had been among them.

Nathan was nice, a bit, well ok, a lot, overprotective of Andrew, and was always willing to help out. They all counted on him all the time. 

But now they couldn't. He was gone.  
  
  
  
"Katie! You were right, my new friends can come over! They are gonna be here soon!" Squealed six-year-old Mikayla Snow.

"That's great Mikey! I'm glad. You always seem lonely when our friends come over," eight-year-old Katie replied.

"Katie, they're your friends, really..." Kayla was interrupted by a knock on the door. "Someone's here!" She ran to the door and flung it open to see three people standing there. "Hi, Nathan! Hi, Andrew, Wendy!"

"Hey, Mike. So you live here?" Asked Nathan curiously. Katie noted that he had dark skin like her family's, thought not as dark, and really curly hair.

"Yep! This is my house, Nay-Nay! Come in, pleasie!" Mike was such a goofball.  
"This place is really big!" Commented the only girl who had been at the door, who Katie assumed was Wendy. "How long does it take to clean? Must be a nightmare."

Katie thought it was an odd comment, but ignored it and observed her and the other boy, who she thought must be Andrew. Both looked slightly worried about something, and while Wendy looked slender and lithe like a dancer, Andrew just looked skinny, like he didn't eat enough. Wendy had dusty-looking red-colored hair while Andrew had brown hair that looked as though it hadn't seen a comb in a month. Suddenly, Katie had found Nathan in her face.

"No staring at Andrew," he said calmly, before calmly walking away.  
  
  
  
When the odd duo ran up to the Snow household, it was quiet. The policemen had left for the night, thinking they could learn nothing more without a good night's sleep.

Katie dragged the Doctor inside the house, and back toward where Nathan's bones were. This, "Doctor," Katie hoped, could tell her what had happened. If she knew, she could make sure it didn't happen again.

Katie flung the door open without any sort of hesitation, her only motivations grieve and rage. She would not, could not, allow anything of the sort to happen again, and definitely not in her home. Her home should be a safe haven for her and all her friends, not a grave for one of them. Never.

She raced to the hall where Nathan’s bones still lay. Around them there were now dried splatters of applesauce and honey mustard and similar foodstuffs. They looked like they had never held a person at all, and if she hadn’t known for a fact they were Nathan’s, Katie would have thought them a spooky halloween prop, made of some sort of plastic. They seemed to almost shine, but it was dull and hopeless of the bones to attempt to be a source of anything but pain. Seeing them again was almost enough for Katie to begin wailing, and Katie had always done her very best to be the most positive person in her family. She had always had to.

“These are all… These are all that is left of Nathan, Doctor… Doctor… I don’t know your name. Oh, well. I don’t think it really matters,” Katie seemed to slump as she stood there. Her hopefully sad smile slid from her face and was replaced by a grieving frown.

“Just, ‘The Doctor’, and it appears… well it appears that your friend was killed by the Vashta Nerada,” The Doctor said as he observed Nathan’s unmoving remains. The remains seemed helpless, like there was not and never had been hope or light in the world, only pecking orders and death.

“The… The what?” Katie Snow might not have been the brightest bulb in the shed, but she was fairly certain that no such thing as a “Vashta Nerada” existed on the planet earth. Wait… hold on a moment… on the planet earth…  
  
“Sis, do you think that there is life in the stars?”

“I don’t know, Mikey. That has no real answer as of yet.”

“Sis… don’t call me that, I’m notta boy! I'm tired of people thinking I am."

“Aww, come on Mikey, don’t be shy! It sounds so cute! Besides, who cares what they think?"

“Katie!! I do!"

“What… are you afraid Bella will hear? Or should I say, Trixie? You think she's gonna think you're a boy?"

“Stop it! Common Sis! It’s not funny! What if she does think I'm a boy?"

“I think it is. Besides, there is no way anyone could think you're a boy!"

“Sis… those people at the mall? Or the diner?"

“Yeah, I see your point. Regardless, I digress. We were talking about alien life?”

“Yeah… I think it’s real, Sis. Maybe to them, we are the aliens! That would be funny, huh?”

“Sure, Kay-Kay. I bet the first time we really see them, they’ll be invading…”  
  
“KATIE!!”

 

“Yeah, Kay? What’s so awesome it’s got you in a fluff?”

“You were right! You were right, Sis!”

“Right about what?”

“The aliens, Katie! They’re invading London!”

“What?”

"This is the single most important day in the history of the planet earth!"

"I wouldn't go that far, Kay-Ki."  
  
“Man, It’s no fair, Sis.”

“What’s not fair?”

“London gets all the cool alien stuff. The US has almost nothing, and boring old Valley Hills has absolute zero anything.”

“I suppose… but people die when aliens are around. Do you want someone to die?”

“I wouldn’t mind if Principal Russ died.”

“I suppose that’s true. But we should hope that our lovely town stays ET-free. What if Luna or Diana died?”

“I… I guess you’re right. I would hate it if anyone I knew who wasn’t Principle Vincent Russ died.”

“Yeah... We probably shouldn't wish death upon the principle of our school, Kay. No matter how much of a Severus Snape he is. Now come on, Mikey! We have a party to plan!’

“Sis, I’ve told you not to call me that! And I wanna wish death upon Principle Russ!”  
  
“Mister Doctor, sir… are you saying that Nathan was killed by… by an alien?” Katie felt her heart began to beat faster and faster. Aliens in Valley Hills? There was no way! ...Right?

“Hmm, yes. It’s rather odd though. This kind isn’t normally this obvious. Something’s wrong,” The Doctor was a little confused in this irregular behavior from this normally predictable creature. It made no logical sense and defied any sort of reason.

The Doctor’s confirming response made Katie’s knees buckle. She collapsed to the ground in a crumpled heap. Dreams in her little sister’s mind… had become a dark and nightmarish twisted reality. The proof lay in front of her, in the form of shimmering whitish-gray bones that had once belonged to a close friend. Gone… hopes, dreams,wishes, and lives… because of an alien… because of an extraterrestrial being.

“Why… Why didn’t we notice it?” Katie could barely speak, the shock of it all had hit her like a train in quick succession to being run over by a bus. She just wanted to sit here, staring at the bones of the first alien-caused death in Valley Hills. Staring at Nathan. Her friend, one of the best she had ever had or would ever had.

“The Vashta Nerada are living shadows. Living, carnivorous, shadows. usually they feed off roadkill, so why kill a human?” The Doctor seemed curious above all else, and Katie was unsure she wished to stay here with him. It was very creepy sitting here, listening to him speak.

Luckily for Katie, her phone rang.

“Hello?” Katie spoke into the phone, shaking.

“Katie! Where are you, Kate?” came back a very familiar voice. Her girlfriend's voice.

“Vicky? I… I’m sorry, I’m… I’m at home. I needed... I needed to know... To know... If... Maybe I..."

“Home? Katie, you’re at your house? Go outside, I’ll come pick you up. Everyone’s been worried sick, you know... And Kate-girl, there was nothing you could have done. I promise you."

“N-not… not really. No-one was talking to each other, so I withdrew into myself like the rest of you… I… I wasn’t expecting you to call me, Vic… But... I mean..."

“Did… did I really not call you the last few days? I… I'm such a bad flipping girlfriend..."

“It’s alright, Vicky-tree. I’m fine. Please get here soon… I feel more than a little ill here… And... Goddess, Vic...”

“What kind of girlfriend would I be if I left you there? Certainly not a good one. I’ll be right over, I swear… Love you, bye.”

“B-bye, Vic."  
  
“H-hey, Mister Doctor? I gotta go… I-it’s a lot to take in, ya know? I… I’ll be back here tomorrow, though, so please be here then…” Katie was still very shaken by the news. She didn’t wait for the Doctor to reply (“Oh! Hmm, yes, of course.”), because she needed rest. She needed calm. She needed her sisters. She needed Vicky.

So, Katie stumbled toward the doorway, shaking like a leaf. Her yellow dress, usually enough to keep out late-night summer winds, now felt far too thin and merely added to the illusion that she was a helpless leaf lost in the wind. Her long, dark hair seemed as though it didn’t know what to do, as the wind blew it in all directions, and her feet no longer seemed to know the familiar pathway from the door to the driveway. Her innards felt like they had been put through a blender then pieced back together, like a 3-D puzzle. She hated 3-D puzzles.

The dark-skinned girl looked every bit shaken and helpless as she felt. 

By the time her wandering and stumbling feet made it to the driveway, Vicky was already pulling in, as the town was small enough to say everyone lived near everyone else. Katie slid into the car’s passenger seat but didn’t say a word, new tears rolling down her cheeks. Vicky immediately noticed, but stayed quiet, assuming that the tears were merely from seeing what remained of Nathan, and started moving the car toward the only hotel in town.

“Vicky…” Katie started to speak, but feeling unsure of how she should tell her story, trailed off as soon as she had begun. She leaned forward just slightly, allowing her hair to fall into her dark brown eyes. She didn’t know what to say or what to do… Everything had fallen apart.

“Yes, Kate?” Vicky replied. She felt very bad for neglecting her Katie for the last few days. Sometimes she forgot that sometimes Katie wasn’t as cheerful as she pretended to be, and, although those times were fairly rare, when it happened, it was really bad. But if Katie had actually broken down, things were worse than bad. Vicky had only seen her this bad once before... The month her parents had died.

“I… Do you… Do you remember the day we first met? How we were both at the mall shopping for back-to-school clothes?” Katie asked from behind her hair.

“I do! We both put our hands on that shirt with all the Disney villains on it, even though neither of us had seen all the Disney movies,” Vicky replied. That day had made her so happy, spending time with someone her age had been so much fun, especially right after Evan and Leah, her little siblings, had been born.  
  
“Hey! Who are you? I want this shirt!”

“There are plenty on the rack, get a different one.”

“You get a different one!”

“Hold on! I need to check this one’s size!”

“Shirts have different sizes other than kid, teenager, and adult?”

“Yeah! You didn’t know that?”

“Nope! I’m about to go to first grade.”

“Really? Me too!”

“You can have the shirt. I don’t know my shirt size. My name’s Katie!”

“It’s fine, this shirt’s too small for me anyway. Oh! My name is Victoria, but please just call me Vicky.”

“Hooray! Now we are friends! That is how you make friends, right?"

“What? Heh, I suppose it is. We will be the bestest of best friends throughout time and space... And all that fun stuff.”

“Ooo... That sounds like fun! Can we start now? Can we have a time machine?”

"Yeah, sure! That sounds like the best thing ever! We can use this clothes rack as our time machine! And it can be a spaceship too!"

"Yay! This is gonna be the bestest!"  
  
“V-vicky-y-y… I… Th-there was… D-d-doctor… Aliens!” Katie stuttered and stumbled over her words before breaking down into sobs. The sobbing shook her whole body, head to toe, and she couldn’t stop. “Aliens!... They… Th-they… Oh, goddess!”

Vicky pulled into the hotel parking lot where the Snow family was staying, and the first thing Katie did was bury her head into Vicky’s chest, sobbing all the while. Vicky wrapped her arms around her girlfriend, upset that she herself had not noticed how upset Katie was. Even though Vicky had also been upset, Katie seemed to be falling apart at the seams. How on earth had she hidden this much pain? It was unbearable to see.

“Shh… shh… It’s alright, you are safe. You are fine. I am fine. We will be fine,” Vicky attempted to sooth the sobbing young woman in her arms. The attempt seemed in vain, however, but at least now Katie spoke in whole sentences.

“Aliens killed Nathan! We are all doomed! We are all d-do-oomed…” Katie sobbed, or more like choked, out. “Living shadows… We… we are all dead…” Katie felt like throwing up, honestly. She felt like she had been plunged from her sleepy and tolerant little town where the worst problem was the school principal, Vincent Russ, into the middle of a science fiction TV show. And she felt so helpless, like a twelve-year-old in the Hunger Games, almost certain you will die. 

Vicky was shocked to hear that Nathan had been killed by aliens. When Katie said that the aliens were living shadows, Vicky’s mind had unconsciously decided that it made sense, but consciously, she wanted to deny it all so badly. But she couldn’t. She could tell, somewhere in her, that Katie was telling the truth. And that was the most scary thing of all. 

Katie had always been certain that there was no way that aliens would ever come to this sleepy town. She had always thought of them as a British problem, that happened on British soil. If Katie wasn’t completely certain, she wouldn’t have said it was aliens. Aliens didn’t like the U.S. Aliens loved big cities. They would never come here.  
  
Inside the hotel, a very different sort of sadness lingered. Mikayla had been struck hard by the lost, which was made worse by the fact that the police had kicked them out of their home. The twins were going completely stir-crazy, stuck in the hotel room for two whole days.

“I’m so BORED!” Luna yelled, jumping on the bed.

“Me too, Lulu, but the police said that we can’t go home until they figure out what happened,” Diana replied to her twin as she jumped on the other bed.

Kayla gave a sad half-smile and moved to the windowsill, because she just thought it felt appropriate. Looking down at the parking lot, she saw a familiar car she hadn’t expected: The car of Vicky Benson. She gave another sad smile as she assumed that Vicky had picked up Katie from where ever that crazy older sister of hers had run off to. Sometimes she really wished that she could be as optimistic as Katie, for although Nathan was gone, Katie was always telling Kayla that at least it wasn’t all of them.

Maybe they weren’t all dead, but Kayla felt dead inside, losing one of her closest friends, in her own house at that. And now… Now she was cut off from the world, or at least that was what it felt like. Even her girlfriend, her lovely Bellatrix, had yet to call her since.

“Tr-Trix…” she whispered, tears once again beginning to form around her eyes. She needed to lose herself. She needed… “Luna, Diana, have you seen my book?”

“Sis, isn’t it still in your bag?” Luna asked, never ceasing in her bouncing. 

“Oh, right. Of course,” Kayla dragged herself across the room toward her bag. She felt almost detached, even from her own body.

When she reached her bag, she pulled out her story. It was a lovely story, one that came to her in her dreams. A story about her family and friends in a world of electronic magic, where travel between worlds was possible, where she was not Mikayla “Kayla” Snow, but Mikayla “Mike” Schmidt. Where Nathan still lived.

She sat down in the one armchair in the room and opened up the notebook that contained her story, for now she would write a new chapter, a chapter all about Nathan, for in her dream world, everyone was alive and fine.  
  
Katie and Vicky quietly made their way up the hotel's many flights of stairs, Katie clinging to Vicky's arm like it was the last lifeboat on the Titanic. Both of them were heavily shaken, but Katie insisted that they had to tell Kayla about how Nathan had died. Katie knew it would shake her younger sister to the core, but she had to know.

The girlfriends slowly climbed the three flights of stairs the two rooms the Snows were staying in. At the door, Katie pulled out her keycard and let them in, all the while neither spoke a single word. There was no point in speaking.

When the door opened, Luna and Diana immediately stopped jumping on the beds when they saw Katie's face. Never, ever had they seen their eldest sister look so sad. Such a look on her face seemed to radiate sadness to the point where they felt sad just by looking at her.

Mikayla didn't look up from her notebook. She needed the escape it provided and squished all other thoughts from her mind. She wrote word after word and page after page, writing a tale where Nathan used his powerful magic to smite down an evil man named after the K-12 school principal. The principal had never really stood a chance.

Yet Kayla was snapped out of her world of magic and mystery by two hands, one darker and one lighter, waving in front of her face. She recognized both immediately, the darker one was her elder sister Katie's, the lighter belonged to Katie's girlfriend Vicky.

The first thought that came to her mind was, how dare they pull me from my world of magic and fun! But upon seeing Katie's face, the thought died without ever being spoken. Katie's face seemed to radiate despair and hopelessness. Suddenly Kayla's own need of an escape seemed unnecessary. Like sugar after a bad day.

"I found out," Katie said so softly and sadly, it was almost amazing Mikayla could even hear her. Pearly tears rolled down her cheeks along an already wet path. "I found out how he died."

"Nathan?" Kayla gasped. How? The police couldn't find any evidence that pointed towards anything or anyone, so how did Katie know?

"I met a man who called himself the Doctor. He said he would look at the house. He said... He said... Oh, goddess above!" Katie was once again choking on the words. This whole thing just felt so surreal, and saying it out loud seemed to confirm everything, but she didn't want to accept that one of her friends was gone. So she didn't want to say it. But she had to. Kayla deserved to know.

Kayla stayed silent. She knew this method of denial to one's self. Katie had done the same thing when their parents, Tina and Daniel, had died. She had somehow convinced herself that if she didn't say it out loud, it was less real. But this time, she was trying, so she waited. If she pushed, Katie wouldn't say anything.

Vicky just rubbed Katie's back all the while, trying to calm the black-haired girl down. She also had a sad expression on her face, but it appeared to be warring with a look of concern, and concern was slowly winning out.

"The Doctor said... He said Nathan was killed by aliens! A-a-alien-ns!" Katie broke down into sobs again, again clutching Vicky's arms like a rope over a cliff's edge. 

It didn't take long for Katie to cry herself to sleep, and soon after, Vicky quietly left. Luna and Diana had gotten scared and gone to the other room, but an hour after she was first told, Mikayla still sat in shock. Aliens?

She had always thought it would have been so cool if aliens came to Valley Hills, but now that they were here, she wished they had never come. She now knew, the idea of aliens was amazing, but in reality they only brought sadness and death. Nathan was gone, and he had been ever so close to him, and she had been so happy when he and Andrew had began dating. They deserved that happiness.

Finally standing, Kayla pulled out her phone and looked at the time. 10:54. She needed sleep. Maybe all of this would make more sense in the morning. Maybe not, probably not, but she could always hope.  
  
But in the morning, things only made less sense to Kayla. She didn’t understand why her older sister would go try to meet up with this “Doctor” person who had made her so miserable the night before.

“Because,” Katie had said, “I want to know what I can do to make sure this never ever happens again.” Then she had left the room. Mikayla didn’t know what to do, so she just stood there for a little while before moving to pick up her notebook and write down part of her story. There was another mystery to solve in the strange world her mind had cooked up. Who was Zero, and why had this bizarre bear appeared in her brain last night?  
  
Katie ate a bagel with strawberry cream cheese as she walked through the town, looking for the strange “Doctor” she had met the day before. The bagel was calming, as it was one of her favorite foods, and one she mentally thought of as happy or cheerful. In other words, emotion food.

She spied the strange man at her house, doing heaven knows what, with goddess might not even know what. So she walked up and into the house, wondering if her house was going to have to die in order for the aliens who killed Nathan to die. While she hoped not, she would still rather give up her house than more of her friends or even possibly one of her family.

“Doctor?” Katie called out into the house, hoping he would respond while she was still on the steps and not actually inside the building where the aliens might get her. She took another bite of her bagel while waiting.

All much too fast, and startling Katie slightly, the Doctor seemed to just appear in the doorway. Katie nearly choked on her bagel.

“Ah, yes. Katie, was it? Yes. Um… Yes! This is your house! Well, sorry, it has got to go, or more people will die. And that would be bad.” The Doctor spoke very fast, leaving even chirpy Katie in the metaphorical dust of his words, which only confirmed what Katie had suspected.

“You are gonna blow it up, right?” Katie asked, just to double check that she wasn’t crazy. Although she supposed that she was crazy regardless of whether the Doctor was going to blow up her house or not.

The Doctor sighed. “If there was any other way, I would take it, but I can’t see another way, so I’m going to have to,” he said with a voice that seemed older than Katie’s grandmother’s. Granted, that wasn’t to hard, since Cindy Snow was probably the most childish grandmother anyone had ever seen.

Katie nodded. She then sighed. “When?”

The Doctor glanced at her. “Five minutes.”

Katie nodded again. “Alright. I should go now, then,” Katie turned away and walked back down the walk to her home one last time, as though saying goodbye, and taking one last bite of her bagel.

But when there are just five minutes, a lot can still happen. People can come together, converging in a single spot.

And that’s exactly what they did.  
  
After about a minute of trying to submerse herself in her crazy world, Mikayla realized it wasn’t going to work, and she needed to get everyone who had been at that party to meet up with Katie. Logical first step? Call your girlfriend!

Kayla called Bella up really quick, hoping she could get everyone together quickly. She knew she had a chance, because for some odd reason, Katie preferred to walk when it was daylight outside, never mind that a car was at least ten times faster.

“Hello?” A very sleepy voice drifted through the phone.

“Trix! Are you awake? Please be awake! I need you to be awake!” Mikayla panicked when she heard the amount of sleep bogging down her lover’s voice.

“Mikey? What time is it?” Mikayla only ever allowed Trix to call her Mike or Mikey, at least since Mama and Dad had died, too many people had thought she was a guy, which was highly awkward when the teachers began to think she was a guy, but the nickname right now was still dregged with sleep.

“Trix! Come on, I really need your help! Wake up!”

"Imma sleeeeeeepy..." Bella seemed a bit slow this morning, which irritated Kayla.

Taking drastic measures, (and a deep breath) Kayla yelled into the phone. "WAKE UP!!!"

In the other room, Luna sat bolt upright, but when the noise didn't repeat itself, she shrugged and went back to sleep.

With a yelp and a thump coming through the phone, Mikayla assumed that her lovely Trix had been startled and fallen out of bed, which had been the desired result, so she didn't really care all that much. She did feel a little bad, though, for the muffled "ow" that also drifted through.

"Mikeeeey! Was that really necessary? That hurt!" Bella whined.

Mikayla cringed, but ignored the guilty feeling. "Yes, I need your help. Have you ever seen Katie look depressed?"

"No, absolutely not. Katie is capable of being depressed?" Bellatrix sounded genuinely surprised, and Mike was not amused.

“Yes! Bellatrix, Katie is a human being, just like you or I!”

“Right, right. Mikey, what am I supposed to do about it? She’s your sister…”

“We need everyone. Everyone who was there, we need them all to meet up with Katie. She went to the house…”

Another thump followed by an “Ow…” drifted through the phone. Kayla would have bet money that the cause was Bella sitting up too quick and whacking her head on one of her dresser-knobs.

“Mikey, what on earth do you mean Katie went to the house?!” Bella was shocked as she could possibly be. There was a chance… a small one, mind you, but a chance… Katie could die in that house. Everyone needed to get over there. Everyone. “I’ll get Annabell, Lanie, Andrew,Wendy, and Jenny. You get Vicky, Mel, Evan, Leah, and Adrick.”

“Sounds like a plan. Now let’s hurry!” Kayla hung up the phone before immediately diling a new number: the number of Victoria Benson.

At first the phone rung for what seemed like forever, but was really only about a minute. After that, the phone was picked up by someone with a voice so sleep-garbled, Kayla was unsure if the person on the other end was Vicky, a robot, or someone else entirely. 

“Vicky?” She said, none to quietly, “Is that you?”

The robotic noise returned with a vengeance. It seemed it didn't wish to leave the poor phone alone.

Mikayla thought for a moment before thinking of an idea. With a giggle, she yelled into the phone, "GET UP YOU LITTLE PIRATE!" 

The phone emitted a yelp before a slightly embarrassed voice floated through. "You heard?"

"What do you think, Vicky?" Kayla snarled into the phone. 

"Yep, you heard.... Mikey," Vicky slyly slipped the nickname into her sentence.

Kayla's cheeks burned as she growled into the phone, "Do not call me that again. EVER. Got it?" She hated having to do that, but... She wasn't a guy, no matter how much she loved the name.

"If I can't call you Mikey, you can't call me a pirate!" Vicky claimed. Stubborn Benson girl.

"Ugh! Fine!" Kayla seemed irritated by those conditions, but there was no way in the seven hells she was letting Vicky call her Mike. Last time she had allowed someone other than Bella call her "Mike", her grandmother had been told that she needed to "Discipline her grandson because he was wearing a skirt."

Needless to say, neither Mikayla nor Cindy were all that impressed. Mikayla had requested she not be called Mike again... At least in the real world. In truth, she loved the name Mike and wished that people wouldn't assume that meant she was a guy.

Why else would she call herself that in her book? She often wished he notebook was in fact the real world, and that this life was the story she had cooked up. Although why she would brew a story this sad, she had no idea. Stories were real worlds too, even if the writers couldn't reach them. At least, not yet.

"What's going on, Kayla? Is something wrong? Is Katie alright?" Vicky asked.

Mikayla winced. Vicky had hit the issue right on the nose. "No. I'm sorry. She left the hotel room about twenty minutes ago..."

"No! She was headed to the house, wasn't she... I'll get my siblings. I'll call Mel."

"Thank you... Bella is getting the others, mostly. I still need to call Adrick. We will converge at the house."

"Good plan. See you there. Bye." Vicky hung up. 

Mikayla sighed in relief. They would make it in time... 

Without wasting a moment, she called Adrick. Needless to say, Adrick's voice was not the first noise she heard.

First there was a noise like the phone had fallen to the floor, followed by the phone skiding, presumably across the floor.

Kayla was not pleased. "GET UP SLIMEBALL!" 

In the other room, Luna sat up again. Nothing happened this time either, so she lay back down. Hey, the bed was comfy!

"What for?" Came Adrick's signature irritated snark. While it contained some sleep, it seemed very alert. Mike wasn't sure how that was possible, but since Adrick was doing it, it clearly was.

Mikayla credited her shrieking. 

"Well I had to get you up somehow, butterfingers. Did you seriously drop the phone?"

"Yes." Adrick deadpanned. "Obviously." He made a disgruntled noise that sounded a bit like "duh".

"Honestly, how on earth does Alice put up with you? You have ten times as much snark as any other sane human being."

"I stole Katie and Luna's snark, clearly. Now, what is it you want this time?" Adrick attempted to divert the conversation away from his and Alice's relationship by addressing why Mikayla had called in the first place.

He was unsuccessful.

"Ok, first, you didn't answer my question, Addy-boy, and second, what makes you think I want something?" Mikayla threw his attempt right back in his face. Yes, she did want something, but Adrick assuming like that really ticked her off. And she was not, under any circumstances, allowing him to get away with that.

Adrick ignored the whole "Addy-boy" thing, much to Kayla's chagrin, and stated, "Because you always want something. Last time you said you wanted to borrow my kindle, and the time before that you needed ten dollars and no-one else would give you any."

"Well, this time I don't want something," Kayla said. She really didn't view this as a want, so technically, she wasn't lying... "I need your help."

"Need...?" Adrick was slightly baffled. Mikayla Snow never needed something, not if she could help it. She had spent hours at work to obtain enough money for her own car, and laptop, and the endless notebooks filled to the brim with who-knows-what dating all the way back to just after her parents had died. For her to say she needed his help... She must have really meant it.

"Yes... It's Katie."

"Where is she?" Adrick's voice had lost all of its snark and sleep, and he now sounded like he was ready for an epic fight against evil.

"She went to the house. Our house. Please, please, Adrick... I'm trying to get everyone to intercept her, but..."

"Got it. I'll meet you there."  
  
It wasn't everyday your girlfriend asked you to help her sister escape the depths of a rather new depression. That just made it all the more important to help. Most important thing in life was to stop others from wasting it, at least in Bella's honest opinion. So, she would assist.

She quickly called up one Annabell Fredrikson. Annabell was likely to have Lanie over, so this was practically killing two birds with one stone! Except, Bella thought, they are not birds, they are people, and I am not killing them, just calling Annabell's cell phone.

Bella sometimes took metaphors a tad too literally. She was trying to work on it, but it was kinda viewed as not a big deal by pretty much everyone not named Bellatrix Sleek or Mikayla Snow.

"Bellatrix, there had better be a good reason for this, or I am going to kill you. Do you understand?" Annabell was not a morning person.

"Yes Ms. Fredrikson, I understand. This is very important," Bella did her best impression of a school student, which wasn't hard, she had only finished high school about a month ago.

“BELLATRIX!” Annabell was notably unamused by this turn of events. She clearly thought it irritating and frustrating.

“Well it is important! It's about Katie!” 

“Katie? Katie’s fine, she's doing the best out of all of us and you know it!” Annabell snapped into the phone, believing every word she said.

“No, she's not. She's broken down. No, I'm not joking, party girl, so don't say I am. Honestly.” Bella’s cheeky, clever student facade was completely gone now.

“But… If even Katie is broken… How are we supposed to be able to fix her? She's the one who's always fixing us!” Annabell seemed panicked, was panicked, by the idea of the unflappable Katie Marie Snow breaking down. 

“It's going to be a team effort. We need everyone there. And I do mean everyone. Is Lanie with you?”

“Yes. She's right next to me. You know how heavy a sleeper she is.” Annabell rolled her eyes at the idea Lanie was anywhere else. She wasn't exactly going to let Lanie go home! Her parents weren't exactly nice. Jeremy, Annabell's father, on the other hand, was probably the nicest man in the town.

“Get her up, we’re meeting at the Snow home ASAP.” 

“Did you really just use ASAP in a conversation? A vocal conversation?” Annabell pinched her nose.

“Uhh…”

“Nevermind. Me and Lanie will be there soon.”

The phone in Bella’s hand suddenly went completely silent. Annabell had hung up. Next up, Jenny Russ. Bella quickly called up the infuriating younger sister of the town’s school principal.

“Hey LeStrange. Gonna torture me into insanity like I'm a Longbottom?” Jenna “Jenny” Irene Russ never ceased the irritating “jokes” made about Bella’s name. It only got worse when she was upset, as she needed the jokes to make her not keel over from the unpleasant feelings.

“I don't have time for this. Okay, one, Bellatrix LeStrange didn't exist when I was born, two, that joke is so old it's practically prehistoric, and three, I need your help. With Katie,” Bella almost sighed out the beginning of her rant and then just slipped into a far more serious tone without even realizing it. Plus, that joke was literally old as dirt at this point. It was almost as old as the Sirius/serious joke, and that was so old people made fun of it.

Although, strictly speaking, dirt might not actually be that old, considering a large portion of topsoil was made of worm poo. Then again, part of the dirt was made of finely powdered rocks. Actually, why was she even thinking about that? Bella decided that her mind didn't always make sense, even to herself.

“Whatever, Trixie. What do you need my help with? Is this about Nay-Nay and Andy? Nay-Nay’s gone… It's just difficult to really wrap my head around… I keep expecting him to give me a call, asking for five bucks so he can buy popcorn for when he and Andy would go to the movies…” Jenny sighed. “If I had to guess, everyone else feels about the same. It almost feels like Nay-Nay’s on Vay-Cay.”

“Yeah… I think that's a good way to put it…” Bella felt that commenting on the fact that Jenny called her Trixie would ruin the mood and make it sound like the situation was less important than it actually was. It probably would have.

“So, Bellatrix, what's the issue? More of those whatever-they’re-calleds followin’ you after hearing your nickname?” Jenny gave a half-hearted chuckle. “I know you said it was an issue that had to do with Nay-Nay, but… Humor me, at least for a minute or two.” If Bella could have seen her, and even though she couldn't, she knew that Jenny was drawing her knees up to her chest and staring out the window opposite her bed.

Bella gave a bittersweet smile to the mirror as she entered the bathroom with her phone. She was going to multitask so that when she had finished the phone calls, she would be ready to go out the door. “‘Course I will, Jen. But I don't know what you're talking about, to be honest.”

“You know, those fans of those bad romance books that are so infamous that even though none of us have read them we all know about them? The ones with the stalker.”

“JENNA!” Bella was not amused. “That's not even funny! I am not being stalked by crazy idiots ‘Cus my nickname is Bella! Honestly! If this keeps up, I might have to pull a Kayla…” Her face was bright red. Bright, bright red.

“Huh? What do you mean?” Jenny, as one of the newest members of the group, initially avoided at all costs ‘Cus she was the principal’s sister, didn't know as much about the history of the group.

“I forgot you were so new,” Bella said with a sigh, putting the phone on speaker and setting it down. “Mikayla. She goes by Kayla now, but she didn't always, and she told me once she would rather not.”

“Really? What did she go by before? I mean you always call her Mike or Mikey, but… Oh,” Jenny’s voice shut off as she realized. “Mike Snow, huh?”

“Yeah… There were only so many times she could take being mistaken for a boy…” Bella sighed. “She protests if you call her Mike, but she loves it. To her, it is the ultimate sign of acceptance. But don't tell anyone else I told you… Katie's been trying to figure this out for years.”

Jenny giggled. “So, what was it you needed to call me for, again? It wasn't to explain Miss Mikey’s name of choice, was it?”

“No,” Bella began attempting to pull her hair up (She had very long bangs), “Me and Mike need your help. Katie has become depressed. She's at the house. Please come along.”

“I'll do you one better. I'll come along, and I'll get Wendy to come too. I talked to her yesterday… Andy won't leave his room, and he’s been alternating between denying that Nay-Nay’s gone, throwing stuff at the walls, and sobbing for hours. I don't think he's going to come out. And because he was closest to Nathan, he won't listen to anyone… Friends are good for Katie, but Andrew needs a therapist.”

“Yeah. Thanks Jenny. That sounds great.”

“See you soon, Bellatrix.”

The phone went silent. No noise came into the bathroom, and Bella had no more calls to make. Bella sighed and began to wash her face, hoping this would all turn out for the best.  
  
“Get UP you little BRATS!” The doors on either side of Vicky Benson flew open with resounding bangs and creaks from the left one having a creaky hinge. Her brown hair was messier than the time that one of her experimental inventions had literally blown up in her face. Her locket was slung over her right shoulder, and her shirt was on backwards, not to mention that she was wearing one tennis shoe and one flip-flop. 

In other words, she looked like she gotten dressed during a hurricane.

On Vicky’s right was her brother Evan’s room. The room was blue with gold trim and mostly gold furniture. The furniture, on the other hand, was rusty golden in color with dusty dark blue trim. Evan himself was still asleep.

Although that didn't last long, as Vicky stormed across the room and yanked back his covers. “I SAID GET UP!” 

Evan squeaked as he bolted upright. “I'm awake, I'm awake!” He was so startled his eyes had dilated inward and he looked completely crazy.

“Good!” Vicky snapped, “We need to get to the Snow household pronto! Get up, get dressed, and get moving!”

“Y-yes, Tori!” Evan jumped up and bolted toward the closet door, either to change or hide from Vicky. Hopefully both. Probably both. 

“Tori? What’s goin’ on?” Leah, Vicky’s younger sister and Evan’s twin, said from the doorway with a yawn. Her hair hung in messy braids that she slept in to create curls in her normally straight-as-a-wooden-board hair.

“Go get dressed, Leah. Katie needs us.”

“Ok…” Leah understood that, what she didn't understand… “ Sis, your shirt is on backward,” she remarked as she spun around to return to her golden and purple room.

“I don't CARE!” Vicky yelled before pulling out her phone. She needed to give someone a call.

The phone was picked up with a snappish haste and a “What?” Melody “Mel” Harris was not a morning person. Or rather, she was a morning person who enjoyed her solitude.

“Get your hellishly slow butt out of bed and down the street to the Snow household NOW!” Vicky screeched like a banshee. An angry banshee of doom.

Mel blinked in startled, sleepy, stupor. “What?” Blond hair fell into strained green eyes (Mel had been up all night).

“Get your butt, to the Snow home, about fifteen minutes ago!”

“Right! Um, why?”

“Katie.”

The phone clicked dead, and Mel leapt from her bed to get clothes on.  
  
Wendy Grayson was a girl of many masks. But right now her main mask was had many cracks. Dance lesson after dance lesson all day, coming home each night to find her brother’s chores half-done, so she would finish them for him before their parents or Charlie found out. If she had time, she would call Jenny, her best friend in the whole wide world, and get updates on life outside of dance and chores, but that wasn't often.

 

Right now, Wendy was slumped against a wall, pondering life’s end and way Nathan’s had come so soon. It wasn't fair. Nathan had done nothing. Was the Goddess punishing Andrew? Mother and Father often called her and her brother evil demon spawn. At this point, she was beginning to believe it.

Goddess.

All of the sudden, as she broke out of the nowhere space to get ready for her ballroom dance class, her phone rang.

The phone hardly functioned, as her parents thought her and Andrew demon spawn, so they had bought them old phones. They were flip phones, for the love of the Goddess above!

Wendy flipped it open and answered the caller. “Hello?”

“Wendy! Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a hold of you, doll-face?” That was the classically flamboyant voice of Jenny Russ. 

“Jen… I have dance in half an hour…” Wendy pointed out helpfully.

“Doll-face, you are not going to dance today. You are going to get your butt down to the Snow household and help Katie Marie recover from depression. Yes, I know your brother is suffering, but he needs a therapist, Wendy, Kate just needs us. Her friends, Wendy-doll.”

“I… I… I can't… Mother and Father…”

“Screw them.”

“Jenny!”

“Please, Wind! Please.”

“I… Fine. Be there as soon as I can.”

The phone snapped close without a farewell and less than a minute later, Wendy joined the dozen or so people racing toward the household where Nathan had died.  
  
The bagel in Katie’s hands disappeared with one last bite. She looked at the house she had lived in since her parents died and wondered why this had happened.

Why here? Why now?

And most importantly, why Nathan?

Katie didn't even notice when the first person ran up to her and wrapped their arms around her. Not even a minute later, everyone was there, hugging her. In the moment, Katie realized something. 

Nathan might be gone, be the rest of her friends, of their friends, were still here. They were there for each other before, through thick and thin, they were still there. And that meant the world to her.

“Thank you…” She whispered, the sound floating above all their heads in such a way that they all heard it, even though it was hardly louder than her breath. 

They all sunk further into the group hug and stayed there, and no-one even blinked when the house blew up. It wasn't important, over there across the street. Houses could be replaced. 

They couldn't replace Katie Marie Snow.

The Doctor left the ruins of the home and looked across the street to where the group was settled on the ground. He knew he didn't need to talk to them, and so left without a word.  
  
And Alice Harris felt very left out when she realized her little sister and all her friends had forgotten about poor, poor Alice.


End file.
